Judge orders Elizabeth School District in Colorado to return removed books to library shelves
A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the Elizabeth School District in Colorado to return all removed books to library shelves. This ruling comes after the NAACP filed a lawsuit with students alleging that the school board was trying to "limit students' access to any books that contravene the Board members' partisan, political values."
According to the lawsuit, the board appointed a committee to review all books in the libraries in the school district and create a list of books containing "sensitive topics" such as "racism/discrimination," "religious viewpoints," "sexual content," "profanity/obscenity," "graphic violence," and "ideations of self-harm or mental illness."
The lawsuit also states that any time a student would check out a book on the sensitive list, their parents would receive an email.
The committee identified 19 books on the sensitive list that they believed were "more sensitive" than the rest. Those books are primarily by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ+ people.
The removed books included:
(1) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas;
(2) Beloved by Toni Morrison;
(3) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison;
(4) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini;
(5) You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson;
(6) #Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights by Rebecca Felix;
(7) George (now published and referred to as Melissa) by Alex Gino;
(8) It's Your World—If You Don't Like It, Change It by Mikki Halpin;
(9) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky;
(10) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher;
(11) Looking for Alaska by John Green,
(12) Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult;
(13) Crank by Ellen Hopkins;
(14) Glass by Ellen Hopkins;
(15) Fallout by Ellen Hopkins;
(16) Identical by Ellen Hopkins;
(17) Burned by Ellen Hopkins;
(18) Smoke by Ellen Hopkins; and
(19) Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt.
Those books were "temporarily suspended" from all Elizabeth School District libraries and put on display at the board's office so parents could review passages in the books flagged as "objectionable" and weigh in on whether the books should be returned to the school libraries.
On Sept. 9, 2024, the board announced its decision to permanently banish all "temporarily suspended" books from the district's libraries instead of returning them. According to the lawsuit, the board decided not to return the books to libraries "because the books contained same-sex relationships, including LGBTQ+ characters, discussed racism, involved police violence or otherwise struck board members as 'disgusting.'"
The lawsuit claims the move "denies students access to books in their school libraries because of the ideas contained in those books and denies authors the right to share their books with ESD students free from viewpoint-based censorship" and that "the district cannot block students' access to information in their school libraries based on the board's political preferences nor can it remove authors' books from school libraries because of viewpoints the authors express."
On March 19, the judge ordered Elizabeth School District to "immediately return the books to the library shelves."
Elizabeth School District Superintendent Dan Snowberger released this statement about the decision, "We are still reviewing the decision with our attorneys. We respect the Judge's order, but we are particularly disappointed with the decision to avoid a hearing so the District could explain the Board's decision and the careful and transparent process it followed before removing the books. We will be appealing the decision, and the District stands by the Board's decision to remove sexually explicit and age-inappropriate content from our school libraries."
